Just to be clear, I'm not making a value judgment here, and I don't mean to knock Call of Duty. I just worry -- half the shooters on the market are trying to be Halo or Call of Duty. I'd hate to see those two series try to be one another. It's a singularity of creativity from which there would be no escape.
Really, I don't care that much about how Halo multiplayer changes, because multiplayer is decidedly not my bag. I'm just in it for the campaign mode (both single-player and co-op), and we haven't seen enough of that facet of the game to develop any real opinions. So far 343 has shown off a bunch of nearly abstract concept art from which people who are waaaay more into the series' lore than I am have managed to glean some interesting tidbits, but besides knowing that Halo 4 launches a new trilogy about diving into the Master Chief's "rich inner life," I can't say too much about what I personally have to look forward to in the game. I thought the "feel" of the game seemed promising, and as long as they don't get rid of the DMR or nerf the Chief's melee attack to ODST levels, I'm sure I'll have a good time.
What do you think of the developers' mission statement to explore more of what makes Master Chief tick? I'm all for character development, but I question how much character there is for the Chief to possess. The guy was kidnapped as a kindergartener, turned into a killing machine, and has spent his entire life as a weapon for other people to point at problems to make them go away. Between fights, he hangs out in deep freeze. Can a man with such a singular purpose offer an intriguing personality? If 343 wants to explore the ethics of war from the perspective of a smart man turned into a murder device, more power to them, but it seems like the team could be hanging its shingle on a very shaky peg.